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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25605706">A Life for a Life</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous_Writer12/pseuds/Anonymous_Writer12'>Anonymous_Writer12</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Omega Ruby &amp; Alpha Sapphire | Pokemon Omega Ruby &amp; Alpha Sapphire Versions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I've been writing this for over a month, Light Angst, M/M, Merfolk AU, Wait there's a tag for that, idk how to tag, mermaid au, someone please help me</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:02:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,994</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25605706</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous_Writer12/pseuds/Anonymous_Writer12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Maxie couldn't tell you how he was the sole survivor of a shipwreck when he couldn't even swim,<br/>but to be fair he also couldn't tell you how he ended up saving the life of the very merman who had saved his.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aogiri | Archie/Matsubusa | Maxie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Life for a Life</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Water, goddamn water.<br/>
He had never liked it, through all the forced beach trips and swim lessons he never liked water.<br/>
Ironic that all those skipped swim lessons could’ve been very helpful in this current situation.<br/>
Maxie just cursed Courtney for making him take a boat to Dewford instead of the better option of flying. (“we don’t have money for a plane ticket.” -Courtney)<br/>
His thoughts escaped him as the panic set in, the little air he had managed to gasp before the boat toppled into the waves escaped his lungs, coughing and gasping, the cold salt water crawling into his lungs. He tried to claw his way upward but the waves only seemed to push him further into the waves. His vision already blurry only began to darken as more and more water overtook his body.<br/>
No, no no no no fuck no.<br/>
His movements became sluggish, his thoughts slowed, and he slowly just gave in to the waves and the deep darkness of the water below him.<br/>
His mind was about to go numb but then he felt something brush up against him, something amidst all the water. His body didn’t react but then he felt something else, it felt human, hands carefully placed on his shoulder, another hand grasping at his own.<br/>
His body suddenly seized again as the last bit of air forcefully left his body. The last thing he remembers is two strong arms pulling him into someone’s chest and suddenly feeling water rushing past him.<br/>
***<br/>
“-drowning! I couldn’t just leave him!”<br/>
“Yeah, ok, good for you you’re a hero but now we have to go, Archie.”<br/>
As Maxie’s mind came to again the first thing he noticed was the sound of two people arguing, and the immediate second thing he noticed was the water coming out of his lungs and needing somewhere to go.<br/>
He jerks up into a half sitting position and begins coughing a bathtub of water onto the beach he found himself on. Was it possible for water to burn if it wasn’t boiling? Because it sure felt like it when the water ejected itself out of his respiratory system.<br/>
He could’ve sworn he felt a hand rest on his back ever so briefly, before a woman’s voice hissed, “Archie!”.<br/>
By the time he stopped coughing and could look around, no one was around him. He found his glasses folded next to him, covered in sand and salt, but still whole, and what appeared to be a trail leading back into the water, as if someone dragged themselves back into the watery abyss.<br/>
“Maxie!” he heard someone call his name, and turned to see Courtney and Tabitha running towards him. He looked around and, now actually taking in his surroundings and realized he was in Dewford.<br/>
He glanced back to his friends as Tabitha pulled him into a hug and Courtney signaled to a paramedic team to where they were.<br/>
As the team asked him questions, Tabitha clung to him, and Courtney profusely apologized for not listening to him, one thing stayed in the back of his mind.<br/>
Who saved him? What saved him? The overbearing evidence pointed to them not being a human, no human could’ve swam that fast, but pokemon couldn’t talk.<br/>
He didn’t duell on it for very long, focusing on making sure Tabitha and Courtney didn’t worry over him, the paramedic team told them that while their quick assessment of him said most of the water was out of his lungs, they had to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn’t experience second hand drowning, and he didn’t like the sound of drowning twice in the span of 42 hours.<br/>
Plus what was he gonna tell them, that a mermaid saved him? He didn’t want to sound crazy, he wasn’t crazy.<br/>
It was probably his mind playing tricks on him, mermaids don’t exist,<br/>
Right?<br/>
***<br/>
He knew something had happened that day, ever since ‘the incident’ (as Tabitha had dubbed it) he had come back to the area he washed up on. Maxie wasn’t stupid (despite what his 6 grade science teacher said) he knew something happened that day. The boat he was on was never found, and he was the only survivor found so far, which made no sense. Ignoring what he remembered happening, Maxie never learned to swim, how was the only survivor of a shipwreck someone who couldn’t swim?<br/>
But his memories also proved that something else was at play, not only the memories of the strong arms wrapping around him (focus Maxie, focus) but the conversation he overheard proved that it wasn’t just delirious pre drowning thoughts imagining someone whisking him to safety.<br/>
Maybe he had died and his ascension to the next life happened to include the strong arms and chest of a (probably hot) mermaid. Merman? What does one call a male mermaid? Because you don’t call a mermaid a merwoman…<br/>
His thoughts were interrupted as he approached the shore he had become all too familiar to him and an unfamiliar sound caught his attention. It sounded like wheezing, and something being dragged through the sand, Maxie quickly moved around the beautiful igneous rocks sticking out of the sand, before gasping and ducking back behind the rock.<br/>
There was a mermaid, a real life mermaid!<br/>
He was well built, with a messy hairstyle plastered to his face due to water, and dark skin reflecting the sunlight from the water droplets on his skin. He had what looked like slits for gills on the sides of his neck and torso, and right where legs would be on a normal human began a majestic blue tail. His tail’s dark blue bled into his lower back before the actual tail began, the long tail had slits of yellow and white, similar to the markings of a Sharpeedo, which led into a shark-like fin at the end of his tail.<br/>
He was dragging himself along the sand with his arms, coughing as he went along, his face showing clear pain and agony. He tried to move up further onto the beach, but his arms gave out and he fell onto the beach, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.<br/>
“Oh shit.” Maxie moved out of his hiding spot and rushed over to the mermaid’s side, he then noticed a deep gash in the man's side, a treble hook stuck in his side, the sand underneath him starting to gain a red tint. “Oh shit shit shit shit.”<br/>
Maxie wasn’t sure what to do, he didn’t have any medical supplies on him and he certainly wasn’t strong enough to carry him anywhere to get help. He quickly pulled out his phone and desperately scrolled until he found Courtney’s contact. Thankfully she picked up,<br/>
“You’re actually using your phone as a phone?” her voice came through the device with clear sarcastic shock.<br/>
“Courtney, I have a situation, get to the beach, where you found me, quick.”<br/>
“Why?! Are you ok?!” she asked, panic invading her voice.<br/>
“I’m fine but this guy sure isn’t, I didn’t call the hospital for a reason so don’t call them, bring the stupid pick up truck Tabitha insisted on getting and the first aid kit we’re gonna need them.” he replied, holding his phone to his ear with his shoulder and taking off his jacket.<br/>
“What’s going on Maxie?” Cortney asked, though he could hear her moving around the house.<br/>
“You won’t belive me if I tell you, you have to see it.” he replied, “just, trust me on this.”<br/>
She paused for a moment, though he could hear her climbing into the truck “I always trust Maxie, and don’t you ever doubt that.” and she hung up.<br/>
He frantically tucked his phone back in his pocket and returned his attention to the injured man in front of him, noticing what was either black paint or an X shaped scar across his face. Ignoring how attractive the mermaid was, he used all the strength he could muster up to flip the man onto his back, and glanced at his jacket with a glint of sadness before pressing it over the wound.<br/>
Carefully he moved the jacket around the hook embedded in the skin, and quietly apologizing when the man's unconscious face contorted with pain at the pressure.<br/>
“I know it hurts but we can’t have you bleeding out.” he muttered. He looked more closely at the hook caught in the man’s side, it seemed to be relatively small treble hook, two of the three of the ends where stuck deep into the gash, the gash itself seemingly cause by the movement of hooks third point as he had moved with the metal contraption already wedged in his abdomen.<br/>
He snapped his gaze up as he heard a car pull up, relief sinking in once he saw that it was Courtney in the truck, she quickly climbed out and stared in shock.<br/>
“I-is that really,” her voice trailed off in awe.<br/>
“Yes, and he’s gonna bleed out if we don’t start helping.” Maxie replied, snapping her out of her shocked freeze and she grabbed the first aid kit and ran to his side.<br/>
“So, we gotta get this hook out of him, and it’s not gonna be pretty, let's get the wound disinfected before we pull out the hook, best case scenario by the time we get the hook out the rest of the wound has stopped bleeding heavily but I doubt that’s gonna be the case-”<br/>
“Get away from him!” A familiar voice hissed at them, both humans turned in surprise to a female mermaid having dragged herself to the shallow part of the water, her long black hair with blue stripes sticking to her and hiding one of her eyes, but the one visible baby blue eye was glaring at them. “Get away from him humans.” she growled again, crawling towards them threateningly.<br/>
It’s her, it’s the woman who was here when I woke up.<br/>
He felt Courtney stiffen beside him and he snapped back to the present,<br/>
“I understand your concern but we’re only trying to help.” he replied.<br/>
She laughed at him, “yeah right, and I suddenly grew a pair of legs. You humans just want us for your science experiments, to prove that you found a real life mermaid, you don’t give a damn about us. You just wanna use us to get famous and shit.”<br/>
Maxie’s expression hardened, “I promise we’re doing nothing of the sort, if we don’t help your friend now I doubt you will be able to get him the help he needs before he dies, so we’re your best bet right now.” he snapped back, turning back towards Courtney, “get the rubbing alcohol out and swap it on some cloth or something to clean the wound. We’ll then take the treble hook out and bandage it.”<br/>
Courtney nodded and began rummaging through the first aid kit.<br/>
“And how do I know your not gonna take him from me the moment you treat him?!” the mermaid exclaimed at them.<br/>
Maxie looked back at her, “you guys are the ones who saved me from the ship wreck right?” her expression morphed into one of shock, “consider this me paying you back for saving me.” Maxie responded.<br/>
She glared at him, before shifting her gaze to her friend in front of them, and sighed, before continuing her way towards them.<br/>
“What are you doing?” Maxie asked,<br/>
“That hook looks painful to get out, and I’ll tell you right now Archie is very strong, you don’t want him moving and hurting himself more.” she explained, moving to Archie’s other side and moving to hold his shoulders down. “You better not make me regret this human.”<br/>
“It’s Maxie.” he murmured, returning his attention to the wound, moving his jacket out of the way so Courtney could disinfect it.<br/>
“Allright, get the bandages ready,” he said, he very carefully moved the hook slightly, and looked up at the still conscious mermaid “get ready to hold him, I’m gonna try my best to make it as quick as possible.” she nodded.<br/>
The treble hook was really stuck, he very carefully moved it back and forth trying to weaken the hook's grasp on the skin, and cringing at Archie’s groan of pain. He kept wiggling the hook, slowly but surely it was coming out.<br/>
“Ughhh, Shelly?” a raspy voice spoke, Maxie looked over and saw Archie’s eyes open slightly, pain engulfing his gaze and voice.<br/>
“I’m right here Archie, I’m sorry about this but we gotta get the hook out of you, it’s for your own good.” she moved to hold him down better, “get it out of him human.”<br/>
Maxie took a deep breath, and yanked the hook the rest of the way out.<br/>
Shelly managed to hold him down, his scream was ear piercing, and if it wasn’t for Shelly he would’ve curled in on himself.<br/>
Archie stayed down, wheezing slightly and groaning.<br/>
“It’s out Archie, you’re gonna be fine,” Shelly talked softly  to him, “you guys have any bandages?” she asked.<br/>
“Yeah, but I doubt they’re waterproof.” Courtney said, pulling the bandages out of the first aid kit.<br/>
“Well, he won’t suffocate, we can breathe both water and air, but he still can’t stay out of the water too long, dehydration.” Shelly explained.<br/>
“There are probably some sort of waterproof bandages at the pokecenter.” Courtney suggested.<br/>
“That’s a good idea, even then I doubt he could swim very far with an injury like that.” Maxie sighed, “ give me the bandages in the kit, we’ll use them to stop the bleeding while you go see if the pokecenter has anything to help.”<br/>
“I-it’s you…” Maxie turned at the sound of Archie’s voice, “you’re the guy from the ship…” he coughed.<br/>
“Shhh, Archie, you need to rest.” Shelly hushed him, grabbing her friend's hand. She turned to Courtney, and just nodded her head towards the town. Courtney caught the hint and got up and began rushing towards town.<br/>
The two of them watched her jog off towards the town of Sootopolis, Shelly scoffed, “dumbass didn’t even take the truck.”<br/>
Maxie glared at her but didn’t say anything about the name calling, “her name is Courtney.” he mumbled.<br/>
Shelly just raised an eyebrow at him; she shuffled around until she was sitting more comfortably, and then placed Archie’s head on her lap and began playing with his hair.<br/>
“He’s the one who saved you, from the shipwreck. We were swimming around to see if the ship would lead to anything or drop something useful, we didn’t expect it to flip over, we were leaving when Archie swam to you,” she looked up at him, her gaze softer then before, but still not trusting, before glancing back down at her unconscious friend. “I told him it was stupid, to just leave you, but he had a look in his eye, I didn’t have the heart to stop him.” she paused before meeting his eyes again. “He likes you, and that’s the only reason I’m trusting you at all, don’t give me any reason to take that trust back.” she spat.<br/>
Maxie didn’t know how to reply, how do you reply when someone says they didn’t want their friend to save your life but their friend didn’t listen and did it anyway?<br/>
“Um, thank you for not stopping him I guess? I’d much rather be here then dead.”<br/>
She breathed out a laugh, “yeah, and thank you for not letting my friend die either I guess.”<br/>
He gave her an awkward smile, not looking up from applying pressure to Archie’s wound, keeping the bandages pressed tightly against the wound.<br/>
“You seem to be very close to him, have you two known each other a long time?” he asked.<br/>
“We grew up together, the two of us and our friend Matt were inseparable since we were little.” she replied, her gaze seemingly drifting to another point in time.<br/>
He was about to ask more when he spotted Courtney running back with a bag in her hand.<br/>
“I didn’t wanna be suspicious and just buy bandages, so I got some other random things.” she explained, ruffling through the bag and handing him the water proof bandages. “Either of you want some lemonade?”<br/>
“Some what?” Shelly asked, Maxie tuned out the following explanation of what lemonade was in favor of focusing on wrapping the wound, Shelly holding Archie just off the ground so Maxie could get it around his (extremely buff) torso.<br/>
“-licious on a hot summer day, especially if you put ice in the drink,”<br/>
“We’ve done all we can for now but he’s not gonna be able to move much with that injury, it’s probably not a good idea for him to swim too far.” Maxie interrupted Courtney’s explanation.<br/>
“We both have to get back in the water soon, we can’t get too dehydrated.” Shelly said, “is it safe for him to be near the beach? Won’t other humans come by?”<br/>
“There are a lot of caves around here, he could stay in one of those maybe?” Courtney suggested.<br/>
“As long as the cave isn’t too far from here, because he’s not strong enough to swim far and we’re not strong enough to carry him far.” Maxie agreed.<br/>
“As if I’d let you bring him anywhere.” Shelly grumbled, she moved Archie off her lap and began dragging herself back towards the water, “I’ll be right back, if either of you do anything I can and will kill you.”<br/>
“Do you want any help-?” Courtney asked.<br/>
“I’m fine.” Shelly snapped, quickening her pace before getting deep enough in the water to swim off.<br/>
Courtney sat back down next to him and opened a can of lemonade, “never thought I’d meet real life mermaids.”<br/>
“Me neither, but I had a suspicion something was out there since the incident.” Maxie said, looking back at the sleeping mermaid’s face.<br/>
“Really? What happened?”<br/>
“Right when I was blacking out under the water I felt something come up to me and grab me, I also heard voices when I woke up, and one of the voices was Shelly, I recognized it.” he muttered, not moving his gaze away from the man in front of them.<br/>
“Oh, well, I guess that explains how you survived,” she mumbled, sipping her lemonade.<br/>
“Yeah, he saved my life, Shelly confirmed it for me.”<br/>
“Well, maybe you should thank him when he wakes up.”<br/>
“I plan on it, I already thanked Shelly and you can probably guess how it went based on her demeanor.”<br/>
Courtney laughed, spilling a bit of her drink on the sand.<br/>
Maxie continued to look at Archie, the slow but consistent rise and fall of his chest calming any nerves that he had somehow made the injury worse in his attempt to get the treble hook out. The bandages seemed to be soaking the blood that was still coming out of the wound, though the bleeding had decreased significantly.<br/>
He shifted his gaze up and down the mermaid's body, taking in more detail now that he didn’t have adrenaline and panic flooding through his body. Archie’s face was relaxed, his hair and short facial hair that stretched along a firm jawline had begun to dry, and the black X on his face clearly covering some sort of scar. He had multiple smaller scars all across his torso, Maxie wondered how he got all of them. He also seemed to have some small amounts of scales all over him, and his hands had webbing between each finger. His gills were partially covered by the bandages, hopefully the ones on his neck we’re enough for him to breath while underwater.<br/>
Archie’s tail was truly something to behold though, it stretched out made him easily ‘taller’ then most humans, the gradient of his dark skin to the dark blue was smooth and the stripes of white and yellow creating a pattern along his sides that became wrappings around the end of his tail. His fin resembled that of a shark, almost looking like sharp blades that could cut through the water.<br/>
Maxie looked back up at his face and imagined those sky blue eyes he had seen for the brief moment Archie had been conscious, he imagined what they would look like devoid of the pain he had been feeling, what would those eyes look like when happy? When sad? When showing the man behind them?<br/>
“Earth to Maxie.” he jumped as Courtney tapped his shoulder. “You ok?”<br/>
“Y-yeah, I’m fine.” he stuttered, beginning to blush at being caught daydreaming.<br/>
Courtney got a wicked smile on her face “well, you were just staring at our mermaid companion and I thought maybe you were suffering from a case of the gay.”<br/>
“Courtney,”<br/>
“What? Is my gaydar wrong? Because you know I have a flawless track record.”<br/>
Maxie just buried his face in his hands, feeling the heat rising in his face as Courtney began cackling.<br/>
“I found a cave that should work, it even seems to have an entrance you humans can use.” Shelly’s voice made both of them jump. She raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask, “and I found a friend to help me get Archie there.”<br/>
Another mermaid (Stood? Sat? Seal posed?) behind her, and he was somehow even buffer then Archie. He had blue tattoos on the edges of his face and a buzz cut hairstyle, his tail seemed to be a similar dark blue as Archie’s but lacking the same pattern of yellow and white. He gave them judging glares but didn’t seem to have the same animosity as Shelly did towards them.<br/>
“This is Matt, as you can see he can easily lift all four of us up, so let’s get this over with.” Shelly said, turning back towards the ocean as Matt made his way up onto the sand.<br/>
“It’s probably easier for us to just drag him over to you.” Courtney called out, putting the now empty can of lemonade back in the bag and pushing herself to her feet.<br/>
Matt looked at them, but said nothing and stayed where he was as Maxie got up. He and Courtney each grabbed an arm and began dragging the blacked out mermaid across the sand as gently as they could. Maxie gasped as Archie groaned a bit as they dragged him but he didn’t wake up. As the got closer Matt’s face softened at the sight of his friend and he moved to gather his unconscious friend in his arms.<br/>
“Thank you,” Matt muttered as he began to swim away.<br/>
“Follow us! You should be able to keep up in that car of yours.” Shelly called out, already much farther away.<br/>
“Wait but we still have to get-” Courtney was cut off by Maxie dragging her towards the car.<br/>
“Just get in the car and start driving.” he said, leaning down and grabbing the bag of purchases off the ground.<br/>
As he and Courtney rushed to catch up to the mermaids, who despite carrying their injured friend were going faster then Maxie had ever seen anyone run, Maxie paused once he was sat in the passenger seat and just processed what had just happened.<br/>
Not how I thought my day would go…<br/>
***<br/>
Maxie sat back and wondered how he managed to get left alone with an unconscious mermaid yet again, especially since Shelly and Matt seemed so protective of their friend. Courtney had left to park the car and grab Tabitha, but Shelly and Matt had given no excuse for leaving. He wasn’t too bothered by this, the cave Shelly had found was covered wall to wall with carvings. The carvings seemed to be ancient, depicting terrifying battles of land and oceans, a struggle between the ancient and powerful Groudon and Kyogre; the spewing lava fighting against the waves crashing on it’s shores, a never ending despair of rain and magma falling from the sky and bursting from the ground.<br/>
Maxie glanced back at Archie’s sleeping face, before carefully getting up and walking towards another part of the wall, carefully reaching out and grazing his hand across more carvings, the ones depicting Groudon; the carvings didn’t seem to be all that deep, some parts that looked carved actually being some sort of paint. Groudon looked different then most  of the images researchers had created of the legendary pokemon, magma like stripes and spirals weaving all atop its fiery red skin. Maxie noticed a similar depiction of Kyogre on the opposing wall, similar yet slightly different patterns adorning fins, tail, and body.<br/>
Maxie’s attention snapped back as he heard another groan of pain come from the unconscious heap of mermaid on the floor. He rushed back over to see Archie’s eyes opening, the bright blue orbs foggy with disorientation and pain, and still stunningly beautiful.<br/>
“H-hey you’re awake, ok good, good, um…” Maxie stuttered, pausing when Archie seemed to finally focus in on him. “Are you still in pain, well obviously you are but is it any better? Worse? Is it worse? Did I screw it up? I’m sor-”<br/>
“It’s better,” the mermaid cut him off, “were you the one who got it out?”<br/>
“Oh! Um yes, that was me, I tried my best to make it quick and as painless as I could.” he replied, his reaction delayed by how gruff Archie’s voice truly was, it was oddly soothing.<br/>
“Well, based on how I’m feeling you did a good job.” Archie said, giving him a toothy grin, and earning a blush from Maxie. Archie then attempted to sit himself up but quickly winced in pain at the motion, his elbow giving away underneath him.<br/>
Maxie quickly lunged forward and grabbed the other man’s torso and head to keep him from hitting it on the ground.<br/>
“Be careful! You’re still weak from the blood loss and passing out” he explained, before realizing just how close their faces were and quickly moving his head away from Archie’s, opting to help the mermaid sit against the wall and propped up next to a boulder for extra support.<br/>
“Thanks,” Archie mumbled, and after a moment of hesitation adding, “not that I don’t appreciate what you did and don’t enjoy your company, but why exactly are you still here?”<br/>
“Well I get the feeling that if I just left you here alone and unconscious both Shelly and Matt would come for my head.” Maxie replied, smiling as Archie laughed at his assessment “and I wanted to thank you. Shelly told me that you were the one who rescued me from the shipwreck, I would’ve died if you hadn’t done anything.”<br/>
Archie looked surprised, “oh, I didn’t think you’d remember that.”<br/>
Maxie felt the heat rising in his cheeks and looked away, not wanting to think about just how obsessed he had become with figuring out what had happened that day, or the brief glimpses of memory he had from the event.<br/>
He saw Archie open his mouth to say something only to be cut off by Shelly exploding out of the water next to him.<br/>
“Archie!” she exclaimed, before quickly beginning to speak some other language, the sound of the language sounding very similar to a dolphin’s cry, but with a wider range of tones and sounds.<br/>
Matt joined them and immediately wrapped his arms around Archie in a bear hug.<br/>
“Be careful so he doesn’t reopen his wounds!” Maxie quickly called out to the group, Shelly ignored him but Matt gave him a look and loosened his grip on his friend.<br/>
Maxie sat there watching the scene play out before him, Shelly and Archie talking animatedly and Matt chiming in occasionally in whatever language they were speaking in. Maxie could tell how Shelly hadn’t been lying before when she talked about them being childhood friends, the three of them acted like high school friends who went to the same college and later all rented a house together to escape the dorms. Shelly looked to be scolding Archie for scaring her, and he was attempting to defend himself. The three of them, despite seemingly so close, didn’t look related, at least not to Maxie; while both Archie and Matt seemed to have shark-like tails the patterns on Archie’s tail were absent from Matt’s, and Matt’s tail was a clearly darker shade of blue then Archie’s. And Shelly’s was completely different, her tail much more fish-like and with long flowy fins sticking out of her tail all over, her tail lacking an end fin and coming to a fine point much like an eel’s.<br/>
“I-I thought you were kidding, when you said there were mermaids.” a voice caught Maxie’s attention, he turned to see Tabitha and Courtney had gotten back.<br/>
“We’re not maids dude.” Matt replied, smiling as everyone burst out laughing.<br/>
***<br/>
Maxie carefully peeled back the bandages and examined the wound.<br/>
“Well, it doesn’t seem to be infected,” he muttered, placing the bloodied bandages in plastic bag before reaching into the other bag and pulling out clean bandages to replace the discarded ones. “you probably still won’t be able to leave here for a few more days.” he said, glancing up at the merman, who raised his arms so Maxie could properly wrap the wound once again.<br/>
“He’s gonna get dehydrated if he stays on land that long.” Shelly complained, leaning on the edge of the rocks, the rest of her body dunked in the water.<br/>
“Yeah but Maxie here is right, it still hurts to move too much.” Archie defended, Shelly raising an eyebrow at him.<br/>
“Well, we can help him go underwater for a few minutes every few hours or something, it’ll stop him from drying up as fast.” Matt suggested, heaving himself back a top the shore to help Archie back into the water.<br/>
“As long as you don’t move too much that sounds like a reasonable plan, plus we can bring you water bottles if this doesn’t work.” Maxie suggested.<br/>
Archie laughed and let Matt help him into the water, immediately dunking his head underneath the waves and popping back up, looking much more comfortable already.<br/>
“Wanna join us?” the merman offered, looking back up at Maxie.<br/>
“Oh, no, I’m not a fan of water. I never learned how to swim.” the redhead replied.<br/>
The three sea creatures all looked at him like he was insane,<br/>
“Well, your loss, we’ll be back in 15 minutes.” Shelly said, diving under once again; Archie and Matt following suit much more slowly.<br/>
Maxie leaned back against the wall and turned towards the two other humans present, who were currently huddled near the pictures on the wall talking in hushed tones about presumably the images scattered before them.<br/>
Maxie turned and grabbed another lemonade out of the bag,<br/>
These next few days are gonna be long...<br/>
***<br/>
“Despite its dull, grey, rough, generic rock-like looks it has a beautiful sound when you hit something against it. The sound resonates just a little bit, and it’s oddly satisfying in its own unique way, If you find a piece that is larger on one end, and thinner on the other, you can make a little thing that sounds kinda like a less bell-like xylophone…”<br/>
Archie listened intently to Maxie’s explanation on Basalt, not really all that interested but still enthralled by the redhead’s explanation. He had liked Maxie’s eyes since he first woke up to see them staring down at him in concern trying to fish that hook out of his side. But that was nothing like the way those eyes were alive with excitement right now.<br/>
They shone brightly in the dark lit cave, the light coming straight from the will of the person behind that gaze, the gaze almost like a child’s on their birthday.<br/>
Maxie’s voice also light and filled with passion about the subject at hand, his normal composed voice rich and full, flowing over Archie like a wave.<br/>
“Basalt looks so boring but it’s so beautiful when people actually give it a chance and I wish people would stop just assuming all the shiny looking rocks were the most important because there are many others that deserve attention and-” Maxie suddenly cut off, the light in his eyes dimming. “I apologize, I’ve been rambling, and you probably aren’t that interested,” he mumbled, his voice regaining it’s composure.<br/>
“No, I was listening, you can keep going.” Archie replied.<br/>
“No, I know I talk too much sometimes you don’t gotta be polite,”<br/>
“I ain’t being polite, you got more to say so you should keep talking.” Archie insisted, trying to provide an encouraging smile,<br/>
Whoever told this man he talks too much ain’t gonna know what hit them.<br/>
“You sure?” Maxie asked, the light flickering on once again.<br/>
“Absolutely, what other types of rocks need more attention?”<br/>
“Well, mica is a very interesting rock it feels light as paper, and it flakes when you pick at it,” Maxie began, his excitement soon returning and electrifying the air.<br/>
Archie smiled and leaned back and listened, wanting to memorize how happiness lit across Maxie’s face.<br/>
***<br/>
Maxie’s eyes flew in between the markings on the wall and the sketchbook in his hands, making sure to copy every detail. The carvings were only a centimeter or so deep, the rock seemingly having been almost sanded away. Maxie wasn’t quite sure how these carvings had gotten here but they very clearly were important, this could be a huge breakthrough in understanding the history of the Hoenn region and its patron pair of pokemon.<br/>
“Whatcha doing?” Archie’s voice startled him out of his sketching and Maxie grumbled slightly.<br/>
“Hold on one sec I’m almost done here.” Maxie replied, quickening his sketch to add in the final details before slamming his notebook shut and walking over to the merman. “I was sketching down the engravings on the walls in here, they seem ancient and could provide a lot of answers on many questions about the history of these islands.” Maxie explained, “the images seem to be of an ancient battle between the legendary pokemon called Kyogre and Groudon, the result of their fighting seems to have been the land we’re sitting on right now along with the rest of the Hoenn region, though these are very old and these are just my theories after studying them for these past few days. I’ve probably overlooked many crucial details or misinterpreted a few things so I’d have to ask some of my colleagues to come visit once you’re healed and can leave so we can take higher quality pictures an-” Maxie noticed how Archie’s eyes had begun to glaze over with his rambling and chuckled. “I’m just studying these carvings.” he summarized, pulling out his sketchbook to show Archie his sketches along with the annotations he had done along the sides.<br/>
Archie skimmed over the pages open before picking up the pencil in his hands.<br/>
“That all sounds really interesting, but I have a much simpler question.” the merman spoke, his voice slightly raspy from dehydration, “how do you use this?”<br/>
Maxie’s face face scrunched up in confusion, “a pencil? You don’t know what a pencil is?”<br/>
“I know what it is, we learned about it in human studies but I never could figure out how yall used these things.” Archie clarified.<br/>
“Wait you guys study humans?!” Maxie exclaimed.<br/>
“Yeah, yall may not know ‘bout us but we sure do notice ships going every which direction above us and when they manage to sink down. There’s a whole field of study dedicated to you weirdos and why yall do the stuff you do, I was studying to be a wreckage site explorer before this happened.” Archie gestured to the wrappings around his torso. “anyway, I know what a pencil is, I know what you use it for, I just don’t understand how you use it.”<br/>
“Uh, well, you just hold it like so,” Maxie took the pencil from Archie’s hands and held it like he was about to start writing “and you press it against the paper and the graphite gets transferred over in the same way you move the pencil.” Maxie explained, flipping over to a new page of the notebook before writing out a simple ‘hello’.<br/>
Archie cocked his head as he watched Maxie write, before gesturing to ask if he could take the pencil. Once it was in his hands he tried to copy Maxie’s grip but the webbing on his hand got in the way of him properly holding it.<br/>
“Now I see why I never understood how yall used these things.” Archie muttered, trying and repeatedly dropping the pencil onto the rocks beneath them.<br/>
Maxie laughed, “here, there’s a way children hold pencils that might be easier.” Maxie said, grabbing the pencil and placing it in Archie’s hand, then moving the merman’s hand to form a fist around the pencil and guiding it to the paper.<br/>
Archie’s eyes widened as Maxie helped in write out the H in ‘hello’ before letting go to let the merman try and write the rest of the word on his own.<br/>
Archie placed his other hand to steady the paper and very slowly and crudely copied Maxie’s ‘hello’ onto the paper.<br/>
“See, you managed to write it!” Maxie said, offering the merman an encouraging smile.<br/>
“It looks like shit.” Archie replied.<br/>
“Yeah it does, but it’s legible, which is more then I can say for most children’s first time writing so I’d say take what victories you can get.”<br/>
Archie barked out a laugh at that and wrote something underneath the two ‘hellos’. The script was loopy and short, almost like a bunch of circles but varying in width and space between them, some looking more like ovals, others like circles, others even looking almost like loopy lines.<br/>
“This is how you write hello in my language,” Archie explained, “normally I can write it better then that because we don’t use anything like this.” he waved the pencil in the air for emphasis. “But it’s good enough. Here.” Archie said, handing over the pencil and shoving the notebook towards Maxie.<br/>
“Uhh, where do I start?” Maxie asked, his panicked gaze fluttering from the paper and the word in front of him to Archie.<br/>
Archie laughed and grabbed Maxie’s hand in his, “here, let me help you.”<br/>
Archie guided Maxie’s hand carefully through the word, his hand resting ever so gently around Maxie’s own. His hands felt slightly scaly but still human, the ‘skin’ rough from both dehydration and probably from grabbing at the rocks around them.<br/>
“There ya go, ya did it!” Archie proclaimed, smiling a toothy grin at Maxie, who had just realized they had gotten through the maze of a word on the page, their hands still holding the pencil together.<br/>
Without thinking he adjusted their hands so that the palms of their hands were against each other, their fingers lined up neatly. Archie’s hand was bigger then Maxie’s, the webbing between each finger looking slightly transparent now that it was stretched out.<br/>
Maxie looked back up to meet Archie’s gaze, the merman just grinned at him.<br/>
Maxie returned it with his own small smile.<br/>
***<br/>
“So, how do you guys understand us anyway?” Tabitha’s question made both Maxie and Courtny’s heads snap up, like they were just now realizing they hadn’t thought of that first. “Like, we heard you guys speaking another language, how come you can talk to us?”<br/>
The three mermaids looked at them and then shared a look before Archie cleared his throat.<br/>
“Well, we all know about humans, the shipwrecks and stuff make it pretty clear you guys exist. You guys have effectively become a field of study, part of that includes language.”<br/>
“There are multiple human languages in the world, what are the odds you guys would learn the one we speak?” Courtney mumbled,<br/>
“Wait there are multiple human languages?” Matt asked, both Shelly and Archie looking shocked at that realization.<br/>
“Well, I assume since we study the ship wrecks around here, where you guys live, we would just assume all humans spoke the same language as you guys, it’s just localization,” Shelly muttered, almost talking to herself more then the rest of them.<br/>
“Do different groups of mermaids across the world not speak different languages?” Maxie asked, his notebook open to the page he and Archie had scribbled on.<br/>
“Not sure if there are other groups of us out there, we haven’t run into any others throughout the region.” Archie replied.<br/>
“So you guys might be the only ones left?!” Tabitha exclaimed, clearly distraught at the idea.<br/>
“Don’t be ridiculous, there are many more of us back home, it’s not just the three of us.” Shelly snapped at him, an awkward silence followed before Courtney spoke up again,<br/>
“Aren’t you guys ever curious to find out what’s further out in the ocean? We’ve only explored a small part of it, especially since no one else knows about you guys.”<br/>
“It’s dangerous to go all that far,” Matt said, “the oceans are rather unforgiving, there aren’t many places to stop and rest in the middle of the ocean, and a lot more pokemon to be wary of too, storms also become a lot worse when you get too far out. It’s safer for us to stay near land masses since there are underwater caves and yall tend to scare off the more dangerous pokemon, or catch them before they become issues.”<br/>
“Huh, I never really thought of that, humans really do have a big effect on the areas we live in huh.” Tabitha commented.<br/>
“Oh you don’t know the half of it.” Shelly muttered.<br/>
***<br/>
Maxie carefully peeled back the last layer of the bandages and sighed with relief,<br/>
“Still no sign of infection, you should be good to go in a few days.”<br/>
“Thats, good,” Archie’s voice sounded like two pieces of sandpaper being rubbed together and Maxie winced and looked up at the man’s face. His lips looked chapped and his eyes were only halfway open, it looked like he was about to pass out at any moment.<br/>
“Archie what’s wrong? Are you dehydrated? When was the last time Shelly or Matt took you into the water?” he asked, moving an arm to Archie’s shoulder.<br/>
“I’m, not sure? Last night?” he spoke, his normal confident demeanor slipping into disorientation.<br/>
“Shit that’s far too long,” Maxie muttered, quickly rummaging through his bag and pulling out his water bottle. “Here, drink this,” he said, attempting to shove it in the other’s hands, Archie immediately almost dropping it made him curse more. “Are you too weak to fucking drink water?” his panic starting to leak into his voice.<br/>
“Sorry?” Archie muttered, his eyes slipping shut before Maxie shook him awake again.<br/>
“Don’t do that, we gotta get some water in your system.” Maxie said frantically. He unscrewed the lid of the water bottle just as Archie fell onto him, Archie’s back against his chest. “Hey don’t fall asleep on me, open your mouth will ya?”<br/>
Archie complied but his eyes still shut themselves as Maxie put the water bottle up to his lips. Archie managed to drain the whole water bottle in a matter of seconds, his eyes opening weakly once the water was all gone.<br/>
“Thanks…” the merman mumbled, still clearly out of it but not looking like he was about to pass out.<br/>
“You just gotta hold on until Shelly or Matt shows up ok?” Maxie muttered, attempting to put the water bottle back while Archie was still leaning heavily against him.<br/>
The merman nodded but didn’t reply, clearly focusing his efforts on not almost passing out again.<br/>
It was an excruciating 5 minutes of silence before Matt showed up and immediately dragged Archie off of Maxie and into the water, clearly terrified of how out of it his friend was.<br/>
As Matt pulled Archie away from him Maxie immediately felt the absence of the weight on his chest, and he almost missed it. It was almost like taking two matching puzzle pieces away from each other, he felt a pang of loneliness run through him as he watched Matt carry Archie into the water.<br/>
Maxie made sure to bring multiple water bottles with him the next day.<br/>
***<br/>
Archie relaxed as he sat on the ground under the water, waiting for Shelly to come back to help him swim back up to the surface, she had spotted a pokemon in the distance and had gone to check it out.<br/>
He didn’t mind, he missed the feeling of water surrounding him; the weightless feeling was almost intoxicating, the freedom from the laws of gravity that governed the surface world was tangible even when sitting still at the opening to the cave.<br/>
While he wished for nothing more then to swim into the open and go after Shelly, go investigate that pokemon, or more shipwrecks, or just to swim around the underwater world he called home.<br/>
He knew that he couldn’t just yet, even if Maxie hadn’t warned him against it just moving his tail too much made his side ache. He truly felt stuck, like a flightless bird pokemon, or a fish pokemon stuck on dry land.<br/>
He glanced down at the cave floor beneath him, picking up part of the wall that had chipped off, it felt soft, he very easily chipped of another section of it, he didn’t even use much of his strength.<br/>
Maybe this is similar to those mica rocks Maxie mentioned<br/>
Archie smiled and grabbed the two pieces he had already found,<br/>
Maxie would probably like them even if they weren’t actually mica.<br/>
***<br/>
A sad smile crossed Maxie’s face as he watched Archie swim around the surface of the water, after all this time the merman seemed over the moon at finally being able to swim on his own again.<br/>
Maxie was happy for Archie, he could finally go back to the ocean, go back to his home, back away from Maxie.<br/>
He shouldn’t be this selfish, he shouldn’t want to keep Archie around; even if he had grown attached to the merman it wasn’t right to force him to stay when he clearly wouldn’t want to.<br/>
Maxie was jumped out of his thoughts when Archie suddenly appeared in front of him with a giant splash of water, a smile beaming across his face.<br/>
“Thank ya so much for helping me Max! I would’ve been screwed if anyone else had found me instead of you.”<br/>
“Oh, it was nothing Archie, just, repaying your favor from the boat.” Maxie replied, his face heating up slightly at how close Archie was to him, each of the mermans hands sitting on either side of his hips on the ground.<br/>
Archie cocked his head at him, “are humans supposed to turn red like ye are right now?”<br/>
Maxie felt his blush just intensify at that, “w-well uh, i-it does happen occasionally to some-”<br/>
“Relax,” Archie laughed, “i’m just messin with ya.”<br/>
“O-oh, well, uh” Maxie stumbled, only making Archie laugh more and lean closer.<br/>
“You’re normally more eloquent with your word choice Max,” he paused, looking away for a sec before meeting Maxie’s gaze again. “If you don’t like this you can push me away, ok?”<br/>
“What? What are you-” Archie cut him off, crashing his own lips against Maxie’s.<br/>
Maxie’s shock quickly gave way to delight, as he let his eyes shut and returned the kiss, bringing his arms around Archie’s torso and pulling the merman closer.<br/>
Maxie had never liked the taste of saltwater, but the salty flavor of Archie’s mouth was a taste he could relish in, letting the rest of the world fade away as he felt one of Archie’s arms snake around his waist.<br/>
Once they pulled away for air and their eyes met once again, Archie’s face contorted into the biggest grin he could do, and Maxie simply smiled back.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>funfact: Maxie's rant about rocks is literally copy and pasted from my friend's rant about rocks, because they're both nerds who love rocks.<br/>My friend would 100% be a member of team magma is what i'm saying.<br/>Also I did a bunch of worldbuilding for the mermaid society team aqua is a part of but i didn't even end up including much of it, rip i guess.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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